Mar. 12, 2021 11:55a
(WGTD)---Gov. Evers visited the Kenosha County Public Health Department's mass vaccination clinic in the former Shopko Dept. Store building on 52nd St. Friday--just hours before he and his wife were scheduled to get their second dose of the COVID vaccine in the clinic of their Madison health care provider.
Evers was given a brief tour of the newly-established clinic which takes up over half of the building's space.
What he saw, he said, were expressions of relief on the faces of residents who were receiving their shots. "There are a lot of smiles that I saw in the back there with people getting those shots," he said in remarks to reporters and others afterward. "Every shot that happens is potentially saving a life, not only their own but others that they might be interacting with.
Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser, Mayor John Antaramian and Health Dept. Dir. Jen Freiheit also spoke.
Evers praised health care workers, especially those in the public health sector, who were charged with continually preaching about the importance of social distancing and wearing a mask, positions he said that in some quarters were not always popular. "And then coming in and saying this is how we're going to resolve this problem--we're going to get a shot in every arm that we can do," Evers said. "The people that work in public health and Dr. Freiheit and all of these volunteers are doing the right thing and they've been doing it since the beginning of this pandemic. And frankly it hasn't been easy," he said.
Moving to the Shopko building from the Kenosha Job Center enabled the health department to double its capacity. A total of 4,000 first and second doses were scheduled to be administered this week split between appointments that were scheduled for Wednesday and Friday.
Evers promised that the department's allocation will gradually increase.
As of Friday, shots were expected to be administered again next week on Wednesday and Friday.
Nearly 20% of the county's population has received at least one dose.
-0-
